Advertisements

Jan 21, 2016

Thursday, January 21st 2016 George Simpson & C.C. Burnikel

50A. The end of each answer to a starred clue is a former one : CHIEF JUSTICE

19A. *Whopper alternative (1969-1986) : VEGGIE BURGER. Warren E. Burger. Odd clue/answer in that a Whopper is a brand name and a veggie burger is a generic term.

36A. *Former MLB mascot BJ Birdy was one (1789-1795) : BLUE JAY. John Jay was the first of the Chief Justices.

10D. *Film for which John Houseman won an Oscar, with "The" (1864-1873) : PAPER CHASE. Salmon P. Chase. Meet his brother, Trout, and his sister, Chilean Sea Bass.

25D. *"Jaws" menace (1910-1921) : GREAT WHITE. Edward Douglass White.

This is the second puzzle from George (a.k.a Big Easy on the blog) and C.C. The Chief Justices tend to stick around for a while - when I looked 'em up I was surprised to find there have only been 17. The longest-serving, John Marshall lasted 31 years. John Routledge managed only six months.

Let's see what else we've got:

Across:

1. Chinese take-out order? : NO MSG. A naturally-occuring salt of glutamic acid. In studies, scientists have never been able to trigger allergic reactions to MSG, but that doesn't stop people refusing to eat chinese food (and happily eating tomatoes and parmesan cheese which are naturally loaded with it). If you want an umami bomb to amp up your flavors I use a mixture of anchovy paste, soy sauce and Marmite.

6. Co. making many arrangements : FTD. Florists' Transworld Delivery. Of course we all knew that.

9. Basilica recess : APSE

13. Impressed : IN AWE

14. Lab coat discovery? : FLEA. Nice. The dog, not the research facility.

15. Tool with teeth : RAKE

16. Loud cheering consequence : SORE THROAT

18. Informed about : UP ON

21. Help for a breakdown : TOW. See 34D below for an example of a car that looked very much at home on a flatbed. One of my friends commented that it almost looked like it had been designed to be seen from that viewpoint.

22. Affaire de coeur : AMOUR

23. Star followers : MAGI

26. Webby Award candidate : E-MAG. There were 344 Webbys awarded in 2015. That's one heck of long awards banquet.

29. Wrap maker : ALCOA

32. Lot size : ACRE

33. WWII lander : L.S.T. Landing Ship, Tank.

34. Author Greene : GRAHAM

35. Feel sorry about : RUE

38. From __ Z : A TO

39. Barely moves : CRAWLS

41. Roker and Rosen : ALS

42. Tiny time meas. : PSEC. One trillionth of a second.

43. Branch of yoga : HATHA. Thank you, crosses. Apparently hatha yoga was developed by the deity Shiva and the principles were overheard by a fish.

"Darn secret-stealing piscari"

44. "No real damage" : I'M OK

45. Car-collecting star : LENO. He keeps his collection in a hangar at my local airport. You often see him driving around the neighborhood. My favorite is his 1906 Stanley Steamer.

46. George Eliot or George Sand : WOMAN

48. UV index monitor : E.P.A. The Environmental Protection Agency.

54. Hi's wife, in comics : LOIS

55. Broiler with a motor : ROTISSERIE. I bought one of those Showtime rotisserie ovens once. When I found that it took at least half an hour to clean it each time I used it it went to the back of the cupboard and eventually to a yard sale.

58. Start to freeze? : ANTI-

59. Sanctioned : OK'ED

60. Scrub : ABORT

61. Russia is its largest producer : BEET. Food! They get through a lot of borscht, those Russians.

62. National Preparedness Mo. : SEP. National what? Weird concept.

63. Breathers? : NOSES

Down:

1. Grafton's "__ for Noose" : N IS. This is not so much a clue as a giveaway. You may as well just print "NIS" in the grid and have done with it.

31. Oil giant that built what is now Chicago's Aon Center : AMOCO. If you want to pick a nit here, strictly speaking it was Standard Oil, not Amoco, that built the skyscraper in 1972. Standard Oil became Amoco in 1985.

34. Leak preventers : GASKETS. The end of my time owning a V12 Jaguar XJS came when I blew a head gasket. It was going to cost $4,000 to rebuild the engine. I passed.

Jag-you-are (as Gary noted yesterday)

36. Fault : BLAME

37. 2001 album that's also a nickname : J-LO. Jennifer Lopez.

40. Response to a ring : WHO IS IT?

42. Medically ineffectual treatment : PLACEBO. It's not really "ineffectual"; to me that implies that it's meant to be effective. It's not meant to work, that's the whole point.

44. Bit of clique humor : IN JOKE.

47. High styles : AFROS. I had UPDOS first and was proud of myself for remembering the term.

49. Galileo, by birth : PISAN. Some say the whole ball-dropping malarkey from the tower is a myth.

53. Psyche's beloved : EROS. We had this yesterday. There's a common misconception that this statue in London's Leicester Square is Eros - it's not, it's his brother Anteros, but 99.9% of the population won't believe you.

54. Class where partners may be required : LAB. Crossword purists on other blogs will tell you that it's a heinous crime to have the same word in a clue and in the grid. Rich obviously doesn't mind, and I don't either.

56. Ill temper : IRE

57. "Edge of Tomorrow" enemies, briefly : E.T.S. Never seen the movie, but the crosses filled it in for me.

And .. here's the grid.

Steve

Notes from C.C.:

1) George (Big Easy) came up with this theme, and I went for a smooth ride. Thanks for the inspiration and fun, George!

Not overly crunchy for a Thursday. I had no idea what was going on with the starred clues until the end, but that was OK. Needed perp help for HATHA and ROARY, and the crossing of MSU/EMAG was the last thing to fall, but that was about it for difficulty. I loved the clue for FLEA!

It has been a fun 8 years. I'll give Peg's crossword a while later on today.

Trouble! We had trouble getting started. There was lots of snow cover in the northland during the first pass. Then things started to click on all twelve cylinders. Nicely done, you two. Yes, I was CREEPin' before I was CRAWLin', but that was the extent of my write-overs. Here in Texas we say "Gitgo" rather than "GET GO," but I'll let it pass.

CHASE reminds me that Chase and I are in the process of parting company. Yesterday I transferred all of the remaining Chase funds to Ally and asked Chase to initiate the "close account" procedures, whatever those may be.

Were you kidding, Steve? There were 344 Webbys? Every E-MAG with more than one reader must've won one. And just where in London is the statue of Uncle Eros located?

Happy birthday, blog! I wasn't here at the start, but I got here as soon as I could.

How appropriate that the 8th anniversary of C.C.'s creation should be celebrated with a puzzle from her mentoring factory. I grew up watching my parents solve puzzles and did them for 40 years or so before I stumbled across the Corner googling an answer that I had put in that was apparently correct. I had no idea what the clue/fill meant and had the first of many V8 moments reading the simple explanation. I finally dove in one day commenting on sports teams that did not have a plural S in the name. I learnt all about themes, construction and the lives of so many witty and interesting people.

So much changes over time, gas prices were falling below 2.00, Hillary Clinton was running for president, the Patriots were hoping to win another Super Bowl, Sarah Palin was in the news....

Well anyway, thanks for a fun puzzle that was pretty easy and thanks for the 8 years

Not record time, but PDQ. N IS was first answer and SORE THROAT was the second. Looked to prove it, so picked the long word with the G in it and immediately knew ARUGULA. One of DW's favorites. Couldn't help but see John Houseman in the next clue and PAPER CHASE went in via auto fill. Didn't notice the dates in that clue. Off to the races from there.

When I first read *Whopper alternative (1969-1986), I thought it must have been a menu item in that time frame, and since I didn't know it from the GET GO, I moved on. Then when looking to prove GREAT WHITE based on the G from MAGI and the clue, looked at the clue for the H and saw it was the puzzle theme clue. Aha ! CHIEF JUSTICE.

The only slowdowns were in thinking about Branch of yoga HATHA and studying the letter pattern, auto filling eLO and having to correct to J-LO, knowing but not immediately recalling PLACEBO, and having to work out the final letters in spelling ROTISSERIE. Needed that E from PLACEBO and that also gave me the O in NOSES. Tried to make that area tougher by entering NarES at first.

Didn't know each of the Georges was a WOMAN. In fact, never heard of them in the first place. I'm sure someone will comment about having read their work and being familiar with them. But do they know who Al Rosen is ?

Steve! $4K for a cylinder head gasket?There aint no Justice!(hmm, wait a sec, comments disabled for this video. Might be fake...)

Really busy today, but out of curiosity I started watching a YouTubeof a guy changing a Jag head gasket. Should have known the 2 minute videowas only the intro. I skipped ahead only to find he took the whole thingapart and found a cracked cylinder head!

Fun puzzle, Big Easy and CC. Interesting blog, Steve. This one was quite a easy. Yes, it was interesting that they all had names which are common nouns.Happy anniversary to THE CORNER and many thanks to CC and her team for all you do. I enjoyed Ms. Slay's puzzle.Hand up for the M in MSU and EMAG being the last to fall.TTP, you are correct, I recognized the women right off. We studied them in college. George Eliot's works are famous, including Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, and Middlemarch.I don't know George Sand's works, but I am familiar with her flamboyant life style. She had many lovers, including Chopin. She smoked in public, a strong taboo in those days, and frequently wore men's clothing, which gave her freedom of access to many places where women were not welcome.My ex, a music major, was scandalized that George and Chopin were lovers, not realizing she was a woman. However, there was a rumor that perhaps she had a female lover, along with all the men.Yes,I know of Al Rosen, but not in much detail.

TTP, I know Al Rosen a great third baseman who made Cleveland great with two world series appearances in his 10 years there. He died last year at 91. His OBITUARY tells his story.

George Eliot gave us the novel Silas Marner, from which I learned being miserely leads to misery and George Sands was quite a scandalous woman, who did like dressing in men's clothing while enjoying numerous affairs of the 'heart' and other body parts.

TEA POT/CUP/BAG was an impediment until I saw JAY and BURGER. Looking for the theme (while making sense of the dates) was as fun as Big Easy’s and C.C.’s lovely puzzle!

Musings-HBD to us!-A fine blog as always, Steve. I might have popped for the four grand!-A superb scene from PAPER CHASE (2:13)-Here in the Midwest we better remember this Associate Supreme Court Justice Byron WHITE-I eschewed the RAKE for my mulching lawn mower this year with great results-When I make 6 NASA presentations in a day, a SORE THROAT shows up around the 4th iteration-I polled some 8th graders last week if they thought their grandparents were UP ON technology. The results ranged from 0 - 7-Famous hidden A TO Z logo-Joanne Rowling wrote under gender-neutral JK Rowling to better attract young male readers. Uh, it worked-Coaches can get fired if they are not successful from the GET-GO-Of course HG WELLS and Orson Wells are forever linked in War Of The Worlds-MSU news in Huskerville today-Assigning LAB partners instead of letting kids choose never worked for me. Feelings could get hurt either way but I monitored the process as best I could

A remarkable fact you should know,Is how women in Iceland lie low;When their period starts,They freeze their private parts;Seems they just want to go with the "FLOE"!

For those golf fans out there, today is Jack Nicklaus 76th birthday . . . 3 years older than the total number of victories he had on tour. The amazing fact about Jack - whose 18 wins in "Major" tournaments (Masters, US Open, British Open and PGA) is still tops - is that he finished second in the Major Tournaments 19 times!! Still to me the best overall golfer of all times, although I was a member of Arnie's Army, so Jack was not the one I pulled for.

A nice Wednesday level puzzle on Thursday. I was able to get through it with no cheats or red letters. PERPS were the saving grace for the unknowns and the not-sures.

Although I didn't know the mascot's name for the Detroit Lions, ROARY just had to be it.

Steve: I don't know about the ROTISSERIE grill you got, but I use the rotisserie on my gas grill a lot during the summer. It only takes 42 minutes to do an eye round roast with a nice char on it and cooked through to a light pink without being shoe leather.

Happy Blog Birthday C.C. and to all of the blog participants.

Apparently the Webby Awards is a big event that appears to be heavy on a pre-event cocktail party, event cocktail party and the post-event cocktail party. Webby Event Info Whoever said that they only drink when they are alone or with someone would probably enjoy this event.

I think I'm glad that I don't live in the DC metro area anymore with the amount of snow they are forecasting. We are still supposed to get some snow, but not what DC may get. I hope everyone is prepared if you are in the path of this storm.

PLACEBOS ARE meant to work, except in some test groups (and even in those, they work when they fail). Thus the clue "ineffectual" is misleading, or at best one-sided. "Take two aspirin and call me in the morning."

OK, I'll try again, but will have to go outside the realm of this puzzle. "..., but do they know what a Wheatstone Bridge or Zener diode is ?" (Jayce does)

We have within our group a very broad base of knowledge. So even though I've never heard of the Georges, I'm sure somebody in our group would know them, especially since they are authors, and I know there are voracious readers here.

OTOH, it would be pretty difficult for any one person to know everything, thus the "But do they know who Al Rosen is ?"

Crosswords can test for broad bases of knowledge, but I think of them more of as a fun diversion. With experience, one doesn't have to know everything to be able to solve crosswords. It's uber helpful to build a lot of experience just to learn the crosswordese and common tricks.

I enjoy the solve, and am not afraid to state that I don't know something or have never heard of someone, or that I don't care for a particular clue or fill. Usually, when a person does, someone else comes along "toot sweet" saying they knew that something or read the works of that someone, much like Monday morning quarterbacks.

Yep, I hadn't heard of the Georges, nor that they were cross dressing females whatever their motivations and sexual proclivities were, but I was certain that some here would.

HATHA and ROARY were new ones for me. As far as 14A clue 'Lab Coat discovery' and 54D fill LAB being a no-no, we did this puzzle about a year ago and I couldn't find my original. I did notice a few clue changes that I didn't write but that's what editors get paid for. They know more than me. Originally I wanted RABBIT WARREN for Earl Warren but it didn't work out.

As far as the CSO to myself I really don't remember what the original clues were and the dates of the Chief Justices were added later. 'Webby Awards' was new to me. I didn't keep the original.

ROTISSERIE- I put an electric on on the street last week. Used once over 25 years ago. Easier to get a chicken from Sam's Or Costco for under $5.00.

Steve, what did I write about JAGUARS yesterday? My son-in-law's two Jaguar XFs were always in the shop. Just wait until the C-O-P's go out one at a time. Cars now have an individual coil for each cylinder. And they're NOT cheap.

I found this a tad chewy in spots but no real speed bumps. I had absolutely no clue of the theme until the reveal and, then, it was an aha moment. Fav clue was for flea. I misread the clue for sore throat as sequence instead of consequence and was trying to think of a cheer, like sis boom bah!

Well done, CC and Big Easy, and thanks, Steve, for the witty and wise commentary. Congratulations on the blog's birthday, CC, and a sincere thank you to you and your faithful crew for making our days start off so enjoyably.

Thanks for the puzzle, Peg, I look forward to solving it later on.

Luckily, our area is going to escape the big snow storm; I believe the worst effects will be south of us. It is still pretty darn cold, though.

TTP, I understand. That was not a criticism. Not one of us is familiar in all fields. There are times when I look to the STEM inclined among us to know the answers which I don't know. I do find that knowing only tiny snippets of info can come in handy for puzzles. You don't necessarily need to know more than that one word to dredge up the answer. But sometimes all of us find times when we haven't a clue.You are not guilty of saying that entries you never heard of must be obscure, archaic, regional, not used. That frosts me. I believe the STEM info I don't know is common enough among other types of people.

@Dudley, CED et al - the Jag was a lovely looking car, but a bear to maintain. It once took me two weeks to replace the starter motor (the mechanic estimated $1,000 in labor for a $200 part) so I did it myself. I could see why the $1,000 was reasonable. Plus it only did around 8MPG so not exactly economical!

@D-O - The statue is at the top of Shaftesbury Avenue, between Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square in London's West End. It's a popular meeting place.

Peg, enjoyed your puzzle. I was even able to suss the tricky blog-related answers. Imagine that.

Brian, Marti announced last year that she was going to stop her weekly blog posts. We all hoped that she'd still pop in with her warm 'n' witty comments. She's chosen not to. I'm sure she's got her reasons.

CC, happy birthday to you and the blog! Think I've been around 6 0r 7 years. It's been a fun ride. Today, you and Big Easy clearly show the quality of your efforts.

Today was dicey for me, but in the end got her done. Cheering consequence was a big hold up because I kept thinking Cheering Sequence. Once I woke up, the NE was finished. The other hang up was 42A, Tiny Time meas. I entered Nsec and refused to give it up. I did not remember LENO was a car collector but the n-acebo was driving me nuts. when I finally filled in LENO. PLACEBO worked. Did not know if PSEC was right or wrong. but I was out of ideas, so I said I'm done.

Looks like we won't be getting too much snow this week end for which I'm grateful. Not looking forward to shoveling, but some will be necessary. Snowblower doesn't do well on stairs or the surface above the stairs. Cardiologist said I'm doing fine....guess we'll find out.

-Steve, I watched a great documentary on Netflix about another Leicester (pronounced Lester I believe) discovery - The bones (humpback and all) of Henry III under a parking lot. Definitely in the “winter of his discontent”

I am out, but I have spoken with marti and she has had her business expand dramatically, Since it is primarily overseas her schedule begins very early in the day and she is exhausted by the time the Corner comes along. I am sure she will pop in when things permit.

Happy Birthday to the blog! And thanks, C.C., for bringing us all together!

The puzzle today was fun. I knew ROSEN AND ROKER, and also the two GEORGES. Go figure....

Thanks Big Easy, CC and Steve for a good morning. The information on Anteros, as opposed to Eros, was interesting to me because I once had a sailboat named Antares. Sounds similar but completely different etymology. Words are so much fun!

Happy birthday to us! I found this blog, as i'm sure many others did, Googling a puzzle answer. Lurked for a while, then made a bunch of commentary after i worked up enough nerve, and started blogging, quite irregularly at first, in September, IIRC.

It's been a good run. Hope it goes on forever.

I think a Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon originated this quip - When it comes to borscht, you can't beat soup!

Steve: I had a 67 Jag XKE Roadster. Anytime anything went - which was often is a 30 year old car - the minimum was $500. For like ANYTHING. Lost that car in my divorce.. A few years later, desperate for a convertible, I bought a 92 Miata. Still have it, it's cheap to own, operate and fix. And a joy to drive. No egos need apply.

Also "Edge of Tomorrow" was one of the best movies I saw. Liked it so much I bought the Blu-Ray. Really good.

By a curious coincidence, a "FLEA" in Brit-speak is a small magnetic stir-bar used in the LABORATORY for dissolving salts, etc. in solvents, etc. So, the answer to the clue "LAB COAT DISCOVERY" made perfect scientific sense to me – for the wrong reason.

I agree about PLACEBO. "Ineffectual" means not producing the desired effect. This is twice wrong. In a drug trial, PLACEBOS are sugar pills used for the "control" population that is compared with the population taking the real drug – their desired effect is nothing, which is what generally happens. But then there is also the PLACEBO EFFECT, in which taking a sugar pill unknowingly in place of a real drug still has a beneficial effect; this is usually ascribed to "positive thinking" which has been shown scientifically to boost the immune system in many cases.

TTP: Yes, I know what a WHEATSTONE BRIDGE is, and I know who GEORGE ELIOT was (Middlemarch, Silas Marner, Mill on the Floss). Her motivation for using a man's name (in the Victorian era) was not kinky - it was a simple ploy used in the hope that her novels would be taken seriously. In fact "Middlemarch" was voted in a recent BBC pundit-poll as the best British novel of all time .

On the other hand, I know nothing of American sports, colleges, TV stars, etc., other that what I pick up doing the LA Times crossword. So I make no claims to omniscience either.

Thanks for clearing up the "lab coat" clue, Steve. I couldn't crack that, although I'm a dog lover and owner of retrievers. Maybe it's because my guys have never had a flea. (JINX!)Ah, the mere mention of Jaguars takes me back. Since I have quit driving, the only thing I miss is my old Jaguars. I was a fan for many years, owning one after another from '86 through 2011. They were definitely NOT reliable - until my last one, a reconditioned Sovereign. But we old fans were not looking for reliability. I think it goes all the way back to when I was a kid and saved and saved my paper route earnings to buy the bike. It was a Raleigh English racing bike, with all of three speeds (two more than a standard American Schwinn!). My Raleigh was a deep maroon color, a real beauty.

In today's mail I discovered Alan likely will be be dropped from Medicaid. I could replace it with Medigap insurance, but we would lose the services of DDD, Division of Developmental Disabilities. They provide Alan's job at a sheltered workshop, his staying at a group home when I am in the hospital and many other services.I will consult my attorney. Maybe we can get a medical exception due to his huge medical expenses, which are continual. Alan was in the hospital for an entire week last spring and then in rehab for the entire next month. Two weeks ago he spent the weekend in the hospital and had many tests. In 2015 Medicaid paid over $6000 in extra pharmaceutical help on top of $27,500 from Medicare Part DI hope I can finesse this.

Congratulations to C.C. on 8 years hard work on this puzzle blog. I've been here a little over 6 years not counting a prior lurking period, and it's been a nice ride. Kudos on her ability to "herd cats" and also on her policy of granting us bloggers much slack and latitude in how and what we post, and it demonstrates to me her wisdom in the management of this site. This is a very welcoming stop on my web travels.

Surprised by today's crossword. Congrats to BE and CC on a fine puzzle offering. The solve went well enough for a Thursday; and luckily, no searches were needed. Never know if a theme is going to catch fire, but I thought it was a good one. An aha moment when the reason for the dates on the theme clues became clear. Didn't know WHITE, But Taft must have followed him

I feel so lucky to have found this site - also through a Google search - four+ years ago. I read daily but don't contribute as much. I learn something new everyday and retain all kinds of useless information! The crossword is my daily break from life and work and studying and I so appreciate being able to read about your experiences with it. And I love the poems and links too!

Nursing school was scheduled to start Wednesday but the roads were too icy so it was cancelled. Last night we got 3+ inches of snow so classes were cancelled again. Hoping tomorrow will be my real first day but there's more snow in the forecast so who knows? We don't get a lot of "weather" here so when anything foreign falls from the sky, everyone crashes and the roads are a mess.

BTW my mechanic in California loved working on Jag-you-ares, he retired very comfortably! Gorgeous cars though and they look like a blast to drive!

This certainly is a day to celebrate; it's hard to believe that it's been 8 years. CC, you were so smart to create a team to help you blog. I'm sure many of you don't know that CC blogged EVERY day for the first few years, which gave her no time to create her crosswords . Now she usable to mentor many of you . Kudos to all . Big Easy, this was a great puzzle. Not only could I finish without help (good perps), but it gave me lots of smiles. Leaves holder made me think, and there were so many choices for ice. San Jose State U. is also home to the Spartans, but I knew that would not make it in a CW.

Any of you have a Farberware rotisserie? Mine was a wedding gift in 1969 and I still pull it out when it is too hot to turn on the oven.

Rain forecast for tonight and tomorrow.... no big storms . Stay safe, especially those of you who have to drive in snow.

I've never bought a Skor bar, but I think they are like a Heath Bar. I cut them up (along with pecans and chic chips)to make my favorite cookie.

Hello everyone, I'm afraid that I didn't finish without help today. My puzzling has been hit and miss lately. Too many other things occupying my mind, I guess.

I wanted to congratulate C.C. on her 8th anniversary. I can't believe it has been that long already. The years have flown by. C.C. has been an inspiration to all of us, and we owe her a debt in that we all have grown along with this blog.

My solving was interrupted by my husband calling to say that his car had broken down, and could I come and get him. Called AAA, the repair shop and then drove to pick him up about 10 miles from our home. Sooo, the afternoon is gone.

More rain for us. We are loving the automatic garden watering, and our garden is flourishing as a result.

JD, I have a Farberware rotisserie. We use it a LOT. It is so easy to clean and we don't have to fire up the oven or the BBQ.

Thanks Steve for the GREAT WrITE-up and confirming a ta-da! Thanks Big-E and C.C. for a fun Thur puzzle. SWEET JUSTICE to have a C.C. & fellow Cornerite pzl on the blog's 8th B-Day! I'm IN AWE.

WOs: (are you ready?) eLO/JLO; CHeap JUSTICE; updOS; RAsp b/f RAKE; uSc b/f MSU; diGI (brain-fart; I was thinking of paparazzi) b/f MAJI; MeRV b/f MARV. It didn't help that I though THROAT has the ght weirdness at the end of it (thought; no, throaght?, no... Wait on perps...)

Fav: c/a for FLEA.

Surprised no one mentioned "Our Man In Havana" by GRAHAM. DW did a paper on it. I feel like I've read it. [ibid Eliot] :-)

TTP - pick me! Pick me! I know! My BS is EE... I do try to know a bit about everything; at least enough to carry on small talk. One day I might read a tabloid* :-)

That said, HATHA is way new to me.

Lem - Thanks for the update on Marti; glad she's doing well.

Hondo - PSec is picosecond or what Steve said.

Time to build dinner.

Thanks again C.C. for our Cozy Crossword Corner where I get to learn from all each day.

Bill G. Thanks for that 3-D Art. Trippy. My fav was #3; messin' with the kids. I found a JLO song (On the Floor) - not my scene.

CED - Funny 41d

I wish we had an expo for Peg's puzzle. I've got one open square (34) and 34a is _CLAT and 34d is _CCL. All I can think of is AEIOU or S. That, or I messed up that area. Anyone? This was harder than Big-E & C.C.'s

For the foodies: Cayenne-pepper'd pork chops w/ mushroom-cream sauce (same one I made for the salmon but w/o stone-mustard) w/ a side salad (doesn't sound special, but it had the expensive balsamic vinegar on it). Tasty. Steve, have you done pork w/ the sous vide? I didn't have time tonight, but curious how it turns out.

Oh, Lois is retired, is she ? Thats too bad, I miss her risque' jokes. Just because she is retired is no reason to stop posting. Huh, santa baby ?

BTW, maybe you, Argyle, had something to do with the success of the blog, as well. ;-D)

Bill G., thanks for the link to the 3D Artist, thats really amazing.

TTP, I knew the Georges, the Als, Roker and Rosen,... and I know and studied the Wheatstone Bridge, for resistance ratios, and changed Diodes and Triodes, before the IC came along. And I totally messed up today's puzzle. This is not a personal attack, but I feel yor tone was not nice, and not befitting you - or atleast my image of you. That, by itself, especially from an Anon, is not important. What is important is, that I am fairly certain, tomorrow, you will regret having posted that post on the blog. Nothing is more permanent than one's posts in cyberspace.